Christ, her touch and nearness felt just right.
He settled back and draped his arm over her shoulders, his hand feathering across the rise of her breast. Her breath hitched but she didn’t budge, although he did feel her tremble. He tried to stem the flow of arousal, although he thrilled in the fact she could feel it equally as much.
“I called for a meeting of all the Alphas in the area,” Trey said. “Since we don’t have long before everyone arrives, I’m going to put this shit in the open. We found the missing shifters.” Trey’s low grumble was laced with outrage. “All of them were dead. Shot through the heart with silver bullets. But that’s not the worst part.” Trey’s gaze briefly flitted to Ava and she tensed, fingers clutching Diskant’s leathers as if she knew what Trey was going to say. “They were skinned, and judging by the amount of blood on the scene, they were alive when the sick bastards did it.”
“Why do you think that is?” Diskant leveled a stare at Emory, daring him to turn away as he asked, “What could possibly possess Shepherds to wage war on an area with the largest shifter population in the Northeastern portion of the United States?”
Trey looked at Diskant then turned to Emory, his face shifting from livid to confused as he comprehended something was extremely wrong.
“What have you done, Emory?” Trey’s voice reflected his wariness and distrust. Already the gloves were off. Trey and Emory had never gotten along following Emory’s maturation into an Alpha, parted by differences in ages and the ingrained predisposition to dominate.
“It isn’t what you think,” Emory growled, immediately on the defensive.
“What. The fuck. Did you do?” Each snarled word from Trey was brisk and clear.
A brief but notable amount of apprehension appeared on Emory’s face before his thick brows furrowed and he pressed his lips together. Whatever the problem was, he didn’t want to discuss it.
“They came to my mate’s apartment looking for you.” Although Diskant made sure his tone was cool, his anger was unmistakable.
Emory’s focus darted over, his eyes resting on Ava. His heavily shadowed jaw began to tic. Diskant imagined his hands were forming into fists.
“They drew on us,” Diskant continued, studying Emory intently. “In plain sight. Whatever you’ve done, they’re not going to forget it or move on. You’ve got a bulls-eye on your back and I’m sure there’s a price on your head. You can’t expect others to suffer as a consequence. You’re going to have to balls up.”
Emory tore his gaze from Ava and glared at the table. He was breathing hard, chest heaving. Nathan placed a firm hand on his arm and Diskant knew the Beta was filtering some of his anger by taking it into himself. After several seconds, the gleam in Emory’s eyes lessened. Nathan let him go and sagged into the leather-cushioned seat, panting as his clenched fists resting atop the table tightened and loosed spastically.
“After I left I decided to go to Colorado,” Emory said quietly, voice shaky. “It was a nice change of scenery and a decent place to go it alone. I was there a couple of months before I met the most amazing female. She was smart, she was beautiful, and as you’ve probably guessed, she was mine. I couldn’t believe the dumb fucking luck of it all. I left home and found my one true calling. Then I found out her name.” Emory looked up and stared Diskant in the eye. “Mary Shepherd.”
Everyone at the table went quiet and eerily still and it was immediately mirrored by the pack members in the bar. Diskant turned from Emory, narrowing his eyes and gazing about the room. They’d all heard what Emory said but by adding to the tension they were making shit much, much worse.
This was not good news.
After a moment the noise level increased and the pack returned to business as usual, although in a much more muted fashion. Diskant returned his attention the table, noting the strain on everyone’s faces.
“You’re mated to a Shepherd?” Trey sounded as sick as Diskant felt.
Emory’s nod was jerky, his voice gruff. “I tried to stay away from her. She’s too young and both the man and the wolf recognized that, but it was too difficult to deny the pull. After a couple of weeks I started visiting her college, watching her from a distance. When I finally approached her I realized she had no fucking clue what I was. I found out why when we sat down for a cup of coffee and I learned her parents had died when she was fifteen and she’d moved to live with her aunt and uncle in Colorado.”
“Separatists?” Diskant asked, curious and intrigued.
“From what she shared with me, I would imagine so. I couldn’t exactly ask her about it since she isn’t aware any of our kind exist.”
“How did they find out about you?” Trey was still shell-shocked; it showed in his expression and his somber tone.
“Since I couldn’t exactly knock on her door and introduce myself, I made sure that we always met somewhere in the city. Her uncle got suspicious after we exchanged phone calls and decided to follow her. He was waiting to meet us after we shared a meal and were about to hit the movies, and he had a fucking troop of his kin with him.”
Emory hesitated, swallowing loudly.
“I tried not to shift but when he lunged for Mary it was impossible to control all the changes. They were endangering my mate and the wolf surfaced.” His voice became a heavy snarl. “I couldn’t stop them from taking her, not when they told her what I was and she ran as fast as she possibly could in the opposite direction. It was hard enough staying alive when they were firing silver buckshot at my ass.”
“Did you mark her?” Diskant knew he was asking a difficult question. All things considered, he highly doubted Emory had taken it that far. If he had, there was no way he would have allowed Mary to flee.
“No,” Emory answered, confirming Diskant’s suspicion. “There was never any chance to. The night we were discovered was the first night we were alone.” He lowered his head into his hands. “I shouldn’t have come here. Hell, I didn’t for several weeks. You have no idea how hard it’s been, to know my mate exists but not be able to claim her. That’s why I came back. If I don’t do something soon, I’ll return for her even if it kills me.”
Trey slammed his fist on the table, growling. “How long ago did this happen?”
“Five weeks.” Emory lifted his head. The anguish in his voice was mirrored in his posture.
“Every dead shifter inside that warehouse was a different breed, and not one of them was a wolf.” Trey lifted his head and looked directly at Diskant, conveying the significance of the fact. “When the leaders of the shifter races learn that Shepherds are in town for Emory they’ll demand we hand him over. No one will risk going to war with them. Not if it endangers their families and mates.”
Diskant cursed the circumstances, processing the information as quickly as possible. As an Omega, he had the final say on what went down in his city. Sometimes that held sway when it came to the wolves in the area. He had, after all, been born a wolf shifter and maintained very close ties to them. But by killing off different shifter breeds—of a predatory nature no less—the Shepherds effectively made this a matter he couldn’t take sides on. When those missing pack and pride mates demanded recompense he would be expected to provide it. Emory, a werewolf born into his original pack, wouldn’t qualify for any special consideration. Their connection alone would cause all the other shifters to be wary and distrusting.